Music Player (Remix) Part 2 21
In Part 1 we saw many of the new features that PreCentral member DanPLC has brought us with his Music Player (Remix). Remix is the most popular with over 150,000 downloads. We have already seen how Remix adds a list of features to the Palm Pre webOS Music Player including a slider, elapsed time, bookmarks, lyrics, Resume Play, and on-the-fly-playlists or "Flylists." In this installment we will round out our review with details on new options, playlist features, Alphabet Selector, fonts, background colors, wallpapers, and the new landscape mode.
More after the break...
New Options
The Music Player (Remix) Main Menu also offers a wealth of added features.
Main Menu Remix - You can change the order of the main menu by just dragging an item to its new place. This example shows moving "Flylists" up in the menu.
Main Menu Jump - Swipe the Title bar left to jump back to the Main menu from any screen.
Wikipedia - Palm blocks access to the artist information stored in your MP3 files so Remix gives you expanded Wikipedia options to help you find your artist's history, works, albums sold, and so much more.
YouTube - The YouTube search is more accurate by now searching for the artist and song. You also have the option to search just on the artist.
There's a Playlist for That!
Music Player (Remix) also upgrades your Playlists. Look at how much more Remix shows you. Instead of just showing you the song title, Remix also shows the artist and album.
This sample features a purple background.
Artist & Album - Playlists now show the Artist and Album under the song's title.
Notification Controls - The new webOS Music Player Notification Controls are included to allow you to look for other music or even go to another app and still have control of your music. Tap to Rewind, Fast Forward, Play or Pause.
Need For Speed
If you have even a few hundred songs in your collection, you know the frustration of trying to flick (scroll) your way through the list to find a title at the end of the alphabet. But Remix will get you to your song fast!
Notice the moonlit beach wallpaper.
Alphabet Selector - Tap a letter to instantly jump to your artist, album, or song.
Fast Type - Just start typing the name of a song to go straight to your song. Playlists can now be sorted alphabetically to put you in that place in the list.
Fast Loading - Even with all of the extra features, Remix loads quickly.
Backgrounds
The basic Music Player's medium blue background can be hard to read and a bit boring. With Remix, you can pick any color or wallpaper. A great sample wallpaper is included and hundreds of wallpapers are optimized for Remix. Just tap the Music (Remix) menu at the top left and then tap Preferences and choose Image or Color. This example also shows the ability to move songs around to remix a playlist.
Font Color - set a contrasting light or dark font.
You can also select any color. In this example a bold dark purple is being set as the background color. Also note the contrasting white font is selected.
Sideways
Most recently, Music Player (Remix) has gone sideways now offering an optimized landscape mode as well as a portrait mode for every screen. Remix can turn your music around and even upside down!
This example features one of the city backgrounds.
Whatcha gonna do?
The question Pre owners are asking is, "What is Palm going to do?" Palm rejected the NaNplayer and still the Pre Music Player is missing basic features from 2003. Music Player (Remix) gives Palm a world-class music player for 2009.
Dan has been clear that Music Player (Remix) is just that, a remix. He has preserved each of the Pre's basic music player features and added more. Other features do not appear to be possible with the current SDK including an equalizer, streaming music, and other file types.
Please either hire Dan or list Remix in the Palm App Catalog.
Craig Lincoln, aka Milominderbinder, is a moderator on the PreCentral forums and the developer of the Palm Pre Tips and Tricks.
PS - Please post requests for installation help in thewebOS Quick Install or Preware forums. The Music Player (Remix) Forum can help with player questions. For information on dozens of patches, see There's a Patch for That (Part 1), Part 2, and Part 3.
21 Comments
Again, please post requests for help or questions in the forums:
Questions or help with Music Player (Remix):
How to install Homebrew Apps with Preware:
How to install apps with webOS Quick Install:
- Craig
I'm really feeling the new patch that allows the little button on the headphone to act as a remote control so that I don't have to keep popping my Pre from its holster to switch songs.
Does that mean that the new patch that allows the little button on the headphone to act as a remote control exists? Or you want it to be created? What headphones would be compatible? Does Palm still need to create an SDK for hardware manufacturers for the Pre?
The headphones that are included in the box work fine. It has a button in the middle for hanging up calls. The patch already has been made; I found it in the Preware patches.
Eurpean Pre User... watch out before you download Music Player Remix NEW Version! We informed that it doesn't work with WebOS 1.1.3 . Read the Forum before install it.
Version 0.12.1 will be released tonight that will be compatible with both U.S. and European devices. It's been tested on a European device and is ready to go!
Version 0.12.1 has been posted. The incompatibility with European Pres has been resolved.
So is this ever coming to the App Catalog? $150,000 downloads is nice but I think we can safely assume that number would be double or triple that if it were in the catalog.
I am not really sure why I put a dollar sign in that post. Doesn't make any sense. I want all these apps in the catalog T.T drPodder too!
I love Palm to death, but as far as I see it if they aren't going to do anything to improve the music player why not let NaN in and let the consumer decide if they want to try something that may or may not be affected by updates. The remix is assume and its the number one reason why my ipod nano remains on the night stand. But as the article suggest, what is Palm going to do? When are they going to make a significant effort to either address the media players short comings or let third parties fully into the dance, bell bottoms, butterfly collars and all.
Palm has stated that NaN player isn't allowable in the market since the developer used an undocumented API. They also stated that it might be able to be released via official channels in the future (after that portion of the SDK is opened up), but that it would be fine for the developer to publish as homebrew, but I don't think the developer decided to do that.
I think that there won't be any music players in the official app store until after the SDK is more filled out, but i really love the fact that Palm seems ok with getting these things in the app store eventually.
nb
I love this Music Player...I don't use the built-in player anymore. If you add it to the App Catalog, please keep it FREE!
I can't believe you want this player for free! LOL! I would pay 15.99 for it. Hell, its as good as Ptunes on our 755s and I paid $30.00 for the premium version. All it offered over this one was IMHO a useless graphic eq. As soon as you would attempt to use it, your music would distort. I honestly believe Palm hasn't released the necessary APIs for the music player because they are probably waiting for Ptunes or Coreplayer to adapt WEBos..... What do you all think?
I agree wholeheartedly.
The development on this app was the only reason I got a paypal account so I could chip in to keep development going on this thing. I'd pay for it once it came out too just to keep him developing other stuff.
NB
Thanks for the support. I'm actually developing something else right now. I think it's going to be big! I'm hoping people will find it to be one of those must-have apps that they'll use almost daily (I know I would if I had it).
And to the best of my knowledge, if you know an iPhone user, you'll be able to tell them, "there's an app for that" and they won't be able to say the same thing.
Oh, Dan, you're such a tease! I can't wait to see what you have for us next.
Thanks for remix. I'm sooooo impressed.
Don't worry, when it's closer to being ready, I'll announce it on PreCentral. I just wanted to let everyone know that I plan on keeping up with webOS development and hopefully make some great apps.
My main goal with this particular app was to come out with something that would be really useful to people. A lot of apps in the official catalog are throwaways in my opinion. They might be fun to use a couple of times, but then you're done with it.
The reason why an app like "Music Player (Remix)" is so popular is because it's a utility (music player in this case) that people use all the time. People who listen to music will always listen to their music. So my next app will be something along the same lines...it'll be an app that you can't live without once you have it.
Actually there is a PayPal donation button at the Music Player (Remix) thread.
http://www.precentral.net/homebrew-apps/music-player-remix
That's if you want to support Dan's efforts.
Amen! There's nothing to stop anyone from donating to their hearts' desire. And the best part is: Dan gets ALL of the donation! Can you imagine if everyone so far had given him even one dollar?!
If it gets added to the App Catalog, please charge what you think makes it worth your while. I'll pay for it in addition to the donations I've made. We can't expect good developers to keep making good programs for free.
I was sorry to see someone ask to keep Music Player (Remix) available for free. You get paid for your work, right? How is it fair that you ask Dan to work for free?
If you have not yet donated to Dan and are using Remix, that is exactly what you are doing. Just click the Donate button on his main screen:
http://www.precentral.net/homebrew-apps/music-player-remix
If we want top quality developers to make apps like this for us, we have to let them earn a living at it.
- Craig